This next adventure I have planned this summer with the kids will either be one of the biggest, bestest ideas EVER or a complete disaster. I am hoping it is the former and our fun sky-rockets off the "Are we having a good time?" meter.
I am taking my theory that it is always fun to travel with friends and testing it to the max. Tomorrow, my friend Jen and I are loading up our 5 kids (ages 2 to 7) in her minivan and hitting I-95. We will be on I-95 for approx. 13 hours until we reach Orlando. We won't be stopping at South of the Border and checking out the tacky souvenir shop. We won't be stopping for lunch. And we won't be stopping for dinner. We are driving straight thru the night. My fingers are permanently crossed that the kids will fall asleep in the car and stay that way -- for at least 10 hours.
Once we get to Orlando, hopefully bright and early on Monday morning, we will be staying with my sister, Lori and her husband, Ben. They are currently residing in a 5 bedroom house (owned by my dad/stepmother) and will have 3 bedrooms available for us to use. Plus, they have a pool in the backyard and a playground down the street. The icing on the cake is that they are located approx. a 20 minute drive to Disney. Sounds perfect once we get there, right? Here is my next hurdle -- Lori and Ben don't have kids. None, zip, zilch. I can see our 11 day stay with them being one that provides enough birth control to last a lifetime. Lori has already given me some ground rules -- Ben's room he has all his computers and music equipment is off limits, as is their bedroom. Plus, when Lori gets home from work, she gets full use of the tv. Seeing as I hope we are off busy doing other things, I don't think this will be a problem. Then my mom on a phone call said to me, "Be nice to your sister." Um, yeah. I am always nice to Lori. :)
Thanks to my stepfather who works for Disney, we have 2 days we can do the Magic Kingdom and/or a Disney theme park. We do not plan to do these days back to back and will divide up one day for each week we are there. This will give us all a day or two to recover. In my opinion, this could be another hurdle. Disney. August. Heat. Crowds. -- doesn't really add up to anything but meltdowns and crankiness. And that's just me I am describing, not even the kids.
I've also come up with a list of other things we can do when we are down there. In my opinion, we should have an outdoor day followed by an indoor, AC filled day. And then there is always the beach and pool to cool us down. Throw in an invite to a friend's house for a fun afternoon of a dinner/pool playdate with her kids and hopefully the days will fly by.
I am excited about our trip. I am also just as nervous. I want it to go well. I hope the kids can look back one day and say, "Wow, our moms were really brave to do this trip. We had a great time! I hope our moms take us other places again next Summer."
And when the 11 days are over, I am leaving Ian and Sam down there with my family for a week and doing the drive back to NoVa with Jen and her boys. It will be straight thru the night on the way back too. Eight days later, I'll fly in to Orlando, get the kids and fly back. And that brings me to another hurdle -- flying with the kids on my own. It's been a year, we'll see if Sam has gotten any better flying or just louder!
And that is how the rest of our Summer is being spent. My number one goal on this trip? As always, not to make the news. :)
As a side note - I will try my best to blog through out the next 2 weeks.
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